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You arrive at a live show and discover your cellphone must be locked in a pouch so you can't use it during the performance. Would you be relieved that nobody will be blocking your view with a cellphone held high or irritated you can't share footage of the event yourself?

Enter Graham Dugoni: a young music lover who got tired of disruptive cellphone use at concerts. He's developed Yondr, a locking pouch that makes phone-free live events possible.

Patrons place their phones (on vibrate mode) in the lockable pouches in the lobby of the venue and take them into the performance. If they get a call, they can return to the lobby to have their phone unlocked.

How Yondr works: a quick demo0:53

When everyone at a concert is preoccupied with their phone, "you've taken little nicks and cut out of the experience in a way that doesn't allow the event to build into something, which is why people go to live experiences in the first place: to be swept up into a shared mood in a physical space in real time with everyone there," Dugoni says.

At live shows, patrons place their phones on vibrate before sliding them into the Yondr lockable pouches in the lobby of the venue and then take them into the performance. (CBC )

Many performers have voiced their frustration on the very stages where they're being filmed, often to no avail.

A host of performers — including (from left) Adele, Benedict Cumberbatch and Rihanna — have called out fans for filming on cellphones instead of watching their performances live. (Associated Press)

​Rihanna blasted fans to stop texting their "boyfriends and girlfriends" and instead just watch her show, while Adele was captured in cellphone footagepleading with a woman in the audience at one of her live concerts.

"Can you stop filming me with a video camera, because I'm really here, in real life," she implored.

Now some artists are insisting on "phone-free concerts" as a way to keep fans from posting their material online, and to keep them from being so preoccupied with sharing selfies and clips that they miss out on the spontaneity and connectedness of the event.

In Canada, he was the first to enlist the services of Yondr, Dugoni's San Francisco-based company, for a recent gig at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.

Since then, other performers — including Tracy Morgan, Alicia Keys, Hannibal Burress, Shawn Mendes and Ariana Grande — have also used Yondr pouches, at live concerts or special events previewing new material.

Yondr was employed for the first time in Canada at a Dave Chappelle show at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. (CBC)

Audience members divided

But are audiences ready for unmediated reality? It remains a surprisingly thorny subject.

"I'm pretty much against it. I feel like social media contributes to what musicians do. When I take photos at concerts, I think it helps promote the artist," says concertgoer Suzanne Alyssa Andrew.

"I also feel like it's kind of free speech, and for a woman it's for safety, so I like to have my phone."

Cellphone-locking technology is 'is one of the best ideas ever created,' DJ and concertgoer Chris Bolarinho said outside the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. (CBC)

Ubiquitous cellphone use at live events "takes away from the experience," says Chris Bolarinho, a music fan and DJ.

This technology "would take you back to when there was a time you would actually buy your ticket, go see the show and enjoy it, go out after, talk about the show — instead of just sitting there having coffee, going through your phone and looking at the video again," he said.

Beyond the stage, Yondr pouches are now also being used in schools, at weddings and film screenings, with requests even coming from parents who want to use them at home.

'More time to focus:' using Yondr in the classroom0:57

We've become so dependent on having our phones at all times that some believe constant access to their device is "a basic human right." However, with many live social interactions now taking place through a screen, cellphone addiction is cited as a growing detriment to our quality of life.

For instance, students at a high school in Waterloo, Ont., are using Yondr in their classroom. They had mixed reactions to the pouches when their teacher first brought them into the school, but most admit they appreciate them for helping them to focus on their studies.

"At the end of the day, we're at school to get our work done," says Faith Saechao.

"The pouches, I feel like they really help with taking that distraction away and everyone is able to focus on what we're really here to do."

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